The present invention relates to a message processing system, specifically to a system that, when access terminals for accessing the messaging processing system are connected through a public network, secures a processing to the access terminals, and a method of the same.
In recent years, owing to the widespread use of Personal Computers (PC) and Local Area Networks (LAN), as represented by the electronic mail system, the messaging processing system using a LAN as the network path has been popularized.
As a typical electronic mail system with PC terminals, there are the cc: Mail from Lotus corp. and the MS mail from Microsoft corp. and the like. In these systems, using PC terminals through a LAN as access terminals, messages, namely, electronic mails are interchanged between the access terminals through a messaging server. The xe2x80x9ccc: Mail users guidexe2x80x9d from Lotus corp. describes the method of interchanging messages between PC terminals.
In the messaging processing system represented by the electronic mail system, the messaging server generates a process (a processing program to be executed) for each client access terminal before the messaging processing, and thereafter access terminals begin to communicate by a socket communication between, for example, UNIX and Windows, or Windows and Windows on the terminals.
In the socket communication, once a session is established with the server, the access terminal connected to the server through the LAN is able to communicate with the server whenever a data communication is needed. The details of the socket communication is described in the following published materials.
 less than 1 greater than xe2x80x9cNetwork Programming by Winsockxe2x80x9d: published by ASCII publishing department
 less than 2 greater than xe2x80x9cProgramming Winsockxe2x80x9d written by Dumas : published by Sams
A normal messaging processing system makes possible message communication between PC terminals or PDA (Personal Data Assistant) terminals connected to the messaging processing system through a public line, other than message communication between the foregoing PC terminals connected through the LAN. In the prior art system, the messaging server does not distinguish a process corresponding to a message processing request received through the LAN from a process corresponding to a message processing request received through the public line, that is, the messaging server operates to process these two processes on the equal basis, and therefore, the system has the advantage that equal services are provided to users, viewing from the access terminals.
On the other hand, the generalization of the electronic mail system has increased the demand for requesting an access to the messaging server from any place at any time, using an access terminal represented by the PC terminal. Specially, the access through a public network becomes indispensable, where a user is on the business trip or outside the office. When a PC terminal interchanges a message with the messaging processing system through a public network, the transfer rate of the message becomes extremely lowered, compared to a case in which an access is made to the messaging processing system from a terminal connected to a LAN, and in addition the waiting time (called as the Think Time) for a message input from the PC terminal becomes elongated. As a result, there arises a problem that the service to the access terminal becomes lowered in quality, where a user employs the messaging server through the public network. Thus, the service is expected to be more than the equal level to what the terminal connected to the LAN receives.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a messaging processing system comprising a messaging server and access terminals, in which a service processing to an access terminal through a public network is executed preferentially, and a messaging processing method of the same.
In order to accomplish the foregoing object, the messaging processing system of the invention provides a process corresponding to an access terminal coupled through a public network with an identifier indicating the xe2x80x9cpriority processingxe2x80x9d in a process control table, so as to execute the priority processing as for the process corresponding to the access terminal through the public network. Further, the messaging server is made to preferentially select a process having the identifier indicating the xe2x80x9cpriority processingxe2x80x9d, when the system determines a process to be executed referring to the process control table, namely, when dispatching a process.
In the conventional technique, among processes waiting for message inputs from access terminals is released a process which has received no message input from the access terminals after elapsing of a specific wait time. However in the system of this invention, a dispatching processing unit redispatches the processes which have the identifier indicating the xe2x80x9cpriority processingxe2x80x9d more frequently by a specific frequency than the other processes so that the release of the process with the above identifiers is delayed than the other processes.
Further, when a message is inputted in a wait state for a message input from the access terminals, a process is executed in preference to the other processes if the process has the priority processing identifier.
As an alternative to solve the foregoing problem, in addition to the messaging server, the messaging processing system of the invention is provided with a communication control server dedicated to communicating with access terminals through a public network, and a first process and a second process both of which correspond to the same access terminal are generated in the communication control server and the messaging server, respectively, so as to execute a socket communication between the first process and the second process.
The second process is not released until the first process is released, and as to the first process, the waiting monitoring time for a message input from the access terminals is set significantly long; and thereby, the second process in the messaging server is serviced equally without being discriminated from the other processes corresponding to PC terminals connected through a LAN. As a result, the service to the access terminals connected through the public network is executed preferentially.